The Silver Line: Opening to Nature
Previous Chapter - Devil's Playground Beast Masters It was the rise of a new day as the sun could be seen shining down on the land as if it were telling the inhabitants that it was time to rise and shine. The morning dew started to glisten as the sunshine slowly went over each one of them. However, the sound of rushing footsteps could be heard as figures passed through the vegetation, making the droplets jump up into the sun, shining down small rainbows. The figures stopped as the sun light enlightened the shadows, revealing themselves to be June, Fiona, Rift, Isa, and Taichi. "We're not that far from the Beast's hunting ground, we're about another mile out" June said as they decided to take a break after starting their expedition so early in the morning. Rift pulled up the real as they formed a circle to discus tactics. "So just so we're all up to speed. The hell sort of thing are we dealing with here? I mean, we ain't hunting dragons or something are we?" Some laughed, but Rift was serious. The only person who caught on to this was Isa, who sighed in exasperation. "Rift..." He glanced over at Isa, knowing exactly what she was about to say. "You've heard Axel's stories, and don't got a reason to doubt him. They exist somewhere, and I'd prefer not to be surprised." "The one we're hunting isn't a dragon, that one is probably kept until the time Sabiel is needing to go oversea's. The one we're tangeling with is simply known as the Beast Whiger, a new species she created a while ago. It is the weakest, but still very dangeous" Fiona said looking at the path they were taking. "In any case, it's good we went early, this time around the forest becomes a bit wild during the afternoons" Taichi said as he took a swig from his canteen. "Hold on, she actually has a dragon?" Rift asked surprised. "Anyways." Isa cut in, drowning out Rift going on about fighting dragons. "Do we have any way to find this Whiger?" She looked at June and Fiona, brushing her bangs over her ear before continuing. "Do you know what it looks like? What it does?" "It's a feline type beast basically, the best kind for tracking down any kind of living animal sample, but trust me, this thing is huge" Fiona said looking around to try and see if there was any way to find out if it had been released or not. "In any case, we still need a plan of action in order to keep it under our control" June said looking at the three people in front of her. Isa thought for a moment. "If it's a mammal, it probably has a good sense of smell. So I don't think a surprise attack would work." She leaned back, looking up at the sky. "Sis would probably have a better idea about this than I would." "I don't know." Rift said, finally dropping the dragon thing, though it was unclear if he was talking about Isa's mention of a surprise attack, or of Jaina's ability to form a plan. He quickly molded a tiny metal hammer using his magic and tossed it in the center of the group. "We could just knock it's lights out. Try the whole, dominant animal thing. See where that get's us." "Maybe.... Alright let's give it a shot" June said as suddenly heavy footsteps could be heard, she recognized that it was the steps of the beast. They quickly scattered as they waited for the beast to come closer for them to strike, but what they saw shocked the Blazing Soul mages. A massive beast nearly double their size as it had razor sharp clawes and battle scars all over it's body. Rift and Isa crouched behind a bush, watching it as it passed by. It looked almost exactly as Juna had described, a large feline, except more primal looking in nature. Rift leaned in closer to Isa and whispered with a smile. "So, do you think that's it?" Isa pushed him away, shushing him as she did so. The beasts ears instantly perked up at the sharp sound, setting everyone on edge. It glanced around, made curious by this new distraction. Isa remained completely still, trying to not draw it's attention. She looked out of the corner of her eye when the beast looked the other way, only to find that Rift had gone from his hiding place. "Iron Make!" They all heard from above them, making everyone look up to see him in the air above the beasts head. "Heavy Hammer!" A massive cylinder of metal grew from his hands, which extended on a poll that he swung down on the creature. The beast was pushed down, but held it's ground as it swung his tail around the area, breaking down nearly every single tree that were covering them. "This beast is strong...." Taichi said with a shocked tone before shaking his head and taking in a deep breath as he yelled out, creating a giant sound being of sorts as it began to tackle and wrestle with the beast. "We need to find a way to make him calm down and make him under our control, do you have anything that can shoot out some kind of mind control attack?" June asked looking over to her allies. "No such luck I'm afraid." Isa said, beginning to worry as the beast had just defeated Taichi's sound attack. She used Requip to summon a pair of books to her side, and took the pair of them in hand. They began to glow, and water jumped from the pages of one, forming into an orb in front of her. cold mist began falling from her other book, and large cubes of ice began forming in the water. She held the spell between her two books, letting it grow in size until it measured about 4 feet across, then she shouted. "2 Spell Formation - Icy River!" The water rushed towards the monster, soaking it completely, while the ice battered along it's head and torso. It shook violently, not allowing the water any time to freeze, then it charged at the group. "Sorry to do this to you big fella...." June said starting to make her curse mark appear, but was starting to feel the change as it began to grow little by little on her arms. Fiona caught this and knew that she needed more time as she quickly used Slowing Magic at wide range to try and keep the beast constained, but due to the size, it was only slowly it down a few feet as she was struggling. Rift appeared again, having been nocked into the forest a fair ways. This time, he came around the side, and created a large bat with his magic. He slammed it into the beasts face, causing it to stop dead. It batted at it's face, trying to stave off the pain. Rift clenched his fist, forming a throwing star between each finger, which he tossed at the beasts torso. It gave a howl of pain as they cut into it's stomach, then looked angrily at Rift. "Yeah, come on kitty." he used his magic again to form a pair of swords in his hands. "I'm the one your dealing with today." The beast roared again and lunged at him, claws outstretched, looking for a kill. Rift slid under it's belly, dodging it's claws by mere inches, while his opponents crashed through the remaining foliage. "A plan would be nice!" He shouted back at his companions, before jumping into the fray again. "Alright, let him come now!!!" June yelled as Rift looked at her with an shocked look, but did what she said as he jumped out of the way, leaving the beast to pounce right at June, making the others attempt to go help her, but stopped when a black bolt of lightning channeled down onto the beast, striking him, but not hurting him as the lightning began to channel around the beast's arm's and hind legs until it reached it's neck and created a leash of sorts as the beast attempted to break free, but was met with shocking results. "What did you do to him?" Fiona asked looking as the beast struggled to break free. "Managed to manipulate the bond structure of my lightning, making it into a sort of saddle for us to control it" She said groaning as she was falling to the ground. Rift dropped the swords he had been fighting with, adding to the mass of debris and felled trees in the area. "Well, I caught almost none of that, but it looks like we got what we needed." Looking between the beast struggling, and June exhausted on the ground, Isa looked concerned. "Are you sure you can keep that up? You don't want to ware yourself out before we even get their." She sounded more like a caring mother than a concerned friend. "That I did understand." Rift said with a laugh. He quickly generated what looked like a giant metal cuff and slammed it around the beasts neck. Literally collaring it, he jumped up on it's back. "Sit..." A massive metal fist formed over his forearm. "DOWN!" He slammed it down on the top of the beasts head, causing it to grunt on impact. It went ridged for a moment, then slumped down to the ground, moaning from it's new headache. "Ugh... Sorry the tiring isn't from the use of magic, it's from not having this curse mark run wild" She said taking in a deep breath before the curse mark stopped glowing, "The stuff I injected myself with is still working, but the power in me can run wild" She said regaining control of her breathing as she stood up and looked at the beast moaning. "We apologize, but it is the only way" Fiona said with a sad smile as she walked up to the beast and started to slowly pet it. The beast shifted slightly in her direction, watching her out of the corner of it's eye. Rift jumped off it's head and began hurrying Fiona away from it. "It's not a pet kid. It's a monster that'll jump at you given the chance. Only reason it hasn't yet is because it's head is still spinning." "It's not it's fault, my mother does horrible things to it, it can be a good beast" Fiona said looking over to it as Rift arrived over to June. "In any case, we have what we need, now we can begin step two" June said as the beast regained it's sense of balance and roared, attempting to attack, but fell as the binds made it drop. Isa watched the group, as Rift dealt with the beasts tantrums with another bash on the head. "So how long do you think we can wait before your mom notices it's gone missing?" "The beast usually returns by next morning, it's when her experiments that focus on the sun's ray's occur, this beast was probably sent to gather day time creatures and specimines" Fiona said seeing beast continuing to knaw at it's cuffs. "We still need to figure out what we will be doing once we get in there, it's easy but difficult, especially if we need to find this cure" She replied with a worried tone. Isa wrapped her arm around Fiona to comfort her, pulling her head in to rest on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Jania will have a plan for that. We just need to focus on getting their." The beast thrashed again, causing Isa to jump a little, pulling Fiona with her by accident. From a little farther away, they heard Rift knock the beast out, before shouting. "If you guys want to go get her, I can watch our new friend here. Might save us the time of bringing it back with us." "I'll stay too, I need to keep an eye to try and pick up the guard changes and routine, Sabriel changes them often so it's unpredictable to see how we can get past the guards" June said as Fiona went over to her and looked at her with a worried look on her face. "Don't worry, I'll be fine, go and rest up for a while, you'll need it if you want to face with your mother again" Fiona took in a deep breath and hugged her as she nodded before letting go and walking with Isa and Taichi back to the guild. Just as the others where out of earshot, Rift left the beast to stand by June's side. "So you sure about keeping this kid around?" June was a bit confused by his abruptness, so he explained a bit further. "The Breakers got a once in a lifetime opportunity here. With you, they could march the entire guild right up to this chicks doorstep and bring the house down on the bitch with a good day's work. They know where her main hideout is. Instead, we're going in with only a few people against someone you clamed is invincible. You obviously care for the kid, so I'm wondering why you chose that route, instead of bringing an army to her doorstep." "If it even is the right place" She said walking a bit towards a small cliff to see it, "Sabriel is one twisted woman, her mind is an infinite maze, one way out could seem like another puzzle, maybe this could be the main building, but I've known her longer than Fiona. She will have something in store for us, and I rather die than let anyone else come to my need. I've lost too much as it" She said taking in a deep breath as Rift noticed her change in her behavior as she was gripping on her shirt more tightly. "What about you? I can understand your reason for being here, but I know this is more than just one guild mate, what made you come to the aid of someone like me?" June asked him as she could see her own reflection in his sunglasses. Rift laughed a bit, then flashed her a smile of pointed teeth. "Naw, you had right the first time." He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder, in the direction the others had left in. "As her sister would put it ,I'm a battle happy nut." He paused for a moment. "Both their sisters actually." He laughed again, and June began to question his sanity in the face of all this. "Though honestly, most people from our guild would help out had they found you that night. I'm just the lucky one." June laughed as she pulled a hair behind her ear and smiled, it had been a while since she was able to ever smile at something, but her smile turned down when she looked at him, "Listen, Jaina isn't here so I know she can't do this, but I need you to promise me something" She said looking over at him. "To take the kid and run if this all goes sideways?" Rift turned his thumb to the side as he said the word. "Yeah, Jaina filled us in on that little plan of yours. Though I don't think it'll come to that quite as you expect." "Regardless, I just wanna make sure that she survives, she was given a great gift of freedom, and if I am the cause for her to be sent back, then I rather her be saved and you all too" June said sighing as she sat down on the edge of the cliff, continuing to look at the building to see what kind of activity was going on. "It's funny, to this day I asked myself how I lived for so long when she must've experianced a hell I could never imagine" She told Rift as she felt him sit next to her. "Kid's tougher than she looks. Probably more than we give her credit for." Rift moved his shades up to his forehead, and his blood red eyes surveyed the building. "From what her sister had told me, it wasn't to hard to convince her to leave. I be willing to bet that she had considered running before, just didn't know where to go." "I suppose, it's been so long since I seen her, it was surpising at first that she was able to leave, the last time I saw her was when she was just a little girl obeying her mother" June replied. "Doesn't sound like you missed much to be honest." Rift quipped. "Learning that you have a sister must be pretty jarring though. A sign if their ever was one, am I right?" "True, though she was lucky. She didn't have to see her entire family killed right in front of her" June said gripping her clothes more tightly. Rift turned to her, about to make another smart ass remark, but stopped when he saw the look on her face. He slowly turned back to face the castle again, sliding his shades back down on his face. A nearby lightning flash reflected in them, completely obscuring Junes view of his eyes "I guess that was her doing then, wasn't it?" "Yeah, that damn witch loved nothing more than to see me squirm, injecting me with that curse and killing my family pretty much forced me to depend on her" She said tightining her grip as she tighter, causing a bit of blood to drip from her hands. There was no response from Rift for a little while. The only noise being the distant rumbling of thunder, and the occasional stir from the monster they had captured. He spoke again, this time more slowly than usual. "So these other guild members, they all got some sort of leash on them like you do?" "Some do, some believe in her cause, and some just stay because they think she is undefeatable, at this point it's anyone's guess" She said looking off in the distance, "Do you think they made it to Jaina?" Rift was slower to respond, seemingly thinking things over. When he did respond, he spoke quicker, but didn't sound as upbeat about it as he usually did. "It's only been a few minuets, give them some time. Then we give this bitch a fight she'll never forget". Quick Plan Round-up The trio had made their way past the forest clearing as they were heading on a short cut back to Phantom Breaker as they found themselves on the main road to the cave entrance. "So what do you think Jaina will tell us about our idea?" Fiona asked as she was walking next to Isa. Isa touched her finger to her lips for a moment while she thought. Then held it up as she explained "Well, she'll probably think it's a crazy idea, but will go along with it anyways. Sis is kind of funny like that." "In any case, it would also be best to get help from my uncle, he's the only one who can tell us what we should know about the inside, he was in there before" Taichi said as they continued walking, eventually making their way to the cliffside, seeing the cave entrance close by. "There it is, come on" Fiona said as she went to jog, wanting to hurry and get back to June and Rift. Isa and Taichi started after her, not wanting her to get lost along the way. They traveled for quite a ways before arriving at their destination, Phantom Breaker. Having become lost in their vast halls once before, Isa decided to ask. "So where can your uncle be found?" "Well since he is the current temporary Guild Master, maybe he's in his room, you two go check if he's there, I'll head to the kitchen to restock our food supply, I get the feeling when we get there, we'll need it" He said before going off to the direction of the kitchen. "If I remember correctly, that part of the area is nearby, come on" Fiona said with a smile as she and Isa began the long walk through the twisted hallways, running into a few endings. However, their long trip came to an end when they made their way to a large door. "Ah here it is" She said raising her hand to knock, but immediatly stopped when she heard a strange tone of voices in the room. They looked at each other confused for a moment. It definitely wasn't Konoha's voice, it was much to feminine to be his, but all the same sounded strangely familiar. Their where no words, but what sounded like moans coming from the other side of the door. They listened, still confused, until they heard Konoha's voice echo through. How about here?, which was immediately followed by another moan, and then another familiar voice. Oh yeah, right their's good.. They both jumped back a bit, and Isa's face turned bright red. "Ja-Jaina?" It wasn't loud enough to be heard through the door. Isa looked down at Fiona. "Was that Jaina?" Fiona's face was bright red as well, nodding in agreement, "But... I... they..." She was at a loss for words on what was going on as they both placed their ears on the door. The conversation slowly continued as they heard every word of it, Wow, there is quite a bit of tension on here, you may not want to move around too much, it's hard to get a good rhythm ''Konoha said making both of them blush even harder. While the pair of them leaned in closer on the door, they hadn't notice that it had begun to buckle under their combined weight. Isa looked up at the hinge just as it gave out, causing the door to fall inwards, followed by both Isa and Fiona not long after. "Hey, If you two are goin' to spar, take it outside." They heard Jaina say, despite not wanting to look up at the scene. "Sorry... We...." Isa stuttered, trying her hardest not to look up. "Sorry sis." She quickly got up, adjusting her hat to keep her eyes, and pulled Fiona up beside her. "Sorry for intruding sis." "It's alright, just be careful, we need the doors of my office to be back you know" Konoha said as Fiona and Isa's eyes were closed. "Is there a particular reason you guys have your eyes shut?". "Uh well... we uh... we...." Fiona tried explaining as she saw something that shocked her: Instead of the image they originally thought, Jaina was lying down on what appeared to be a massage table with Jaina's back exposed as Konoha was touching her back. "What's up with the two of you?" Jaina asked, turning her head to one side confused. "Why're your faces all red like that?" Isa stumbled back a bit, more embarrassed now about what she had assumed. "We, uh. We came to tell you that we figured out a way to get to Sabriel's guild. We're just waiting on you now." "Okaaaayyy." Jaina said still confused. She sat up and did her shirt back up. "That still doesn't explain what's up with your faces though." "Uh well... we heard the moanings, plus considering both of you are almost similar ages we just thought...." Fiona said as the two blushed redder than a tomato as steam was blasting out from their heads. Konoha and Jaina looked at each other before laughing as the two looked at them with confusion. "Well, it's interesting to see that you two girls still have healthy thought process" Konoha said wiping the tears from his eyes as he looked over to Jaina. "Yeah, good to have the right things in mind." Jaina said, while she and Konoha had another laugh at their expense. "But you two should try one of the Ogre's massages some time. It really helps you loosen up before a fight, or if like me, your dealing with a bit of an uneven walk." She chuckled a little while rubbing her knee just above her peg leg. "But you said something about getting a way in? Let's get to it then." "We managed to capture one of the beasts that June talked about, however the problem is that we have no idea where my mother hid the antidote or how we will get there at all" Fiona asked as Jaina walked over to them. "That's not going to be easy, if that is the main building, Sabriel will no doubt have multiple traps and settings for everyone" Konoha said wiping his hands with a towel. Jaina hopped off the table and grabbed her sword. As she strapped it around her waist she explained. "Let me and Rift worry about that. You just worry about getting that cure." Once her sword was secured she placed her hand in Isa's shoulder. "You know what you're looking for right?" Isa was a little surprised, but answered quick enough as to not let on. "Yeah, I think so. I'm worried about you though." She took Jaina's hand off her shoulder, and griped it between both of hers. "You're not exactly in your best shape." Jaina reached up and flicked Isa on the nose, making her blush a little. "Don't worry about me. Rift'll be with me, so I'll be fine." She pointed over to Fiona. "You just worry about her and her friend." "Wait, so you'll be coming with us?" Fiona asked with a worried look on her face, she knew that Jaina wasn't in the best shape and she didn't want anything bad to happen to her. Jaina seemed a little insulted. "Course I am." She poked Fiona in the forehead. "Didn't think I'd come all this way and miss out on the best part did you?" Fiona backed off a little, but Jaina pulled her in under her arm. "Trust me kid, Rift's good, but not that good. And I can still roll with the best of them." She leaned in closer and whispered in her ear. "Besides that' Isa's probably the strongest one of us all." She moved back, though Isa blushed a little, having overheard what Jaina had said. "So just focus on gettin' that cure. We'll deal with Mommy." Fiona looked at them, smiling as she nodded and went along with the sisters, looking back to see Konoha giving a thumb's up as they left to grab Taichi and head back to Sabriel's guild. The Ride to Hell The group stood around the monster they had tamed, each looking over the cliffs at Sabriel's castle. Fiona most of all, stood afraid. The last time she had confronted her mother, it nearly got her sister captured as well, and here where 4 other people about to knowingly jump into that same trap. Her thought's where cut off however, when she heard someone talk. "So, Who'd ready for a bit of sightseeing?" Jaina asked, clearly more confident than most of the others. Rift jumped up on the beasts neck, making a seat out of the collar he had placed on it. "Let's get this thing started." His abruptness seemed to kill the mood, strange as he usually wasn't the one who did so." Isa leaned in to June as the others climbed on top of the beast. "Did something happen? He seems a little..." She stopped, unable to find quite the right words. "Different." June looked over to the man, feeling a bit sad for him, but knew that they were going to be at their best in order to get though this, "I don't know, he seems to be ready to take on the guild, for the time being, let's keep our focus on making sure we get out alive" June said getting on with Isa following behind her. Once everybody had gotten onboard, Rift nudged their mount with his foot. "Time to head home kitty cat." The animal groaned, but slowly complied, making it's way down the cliff face. The others began to hide within the creature's long fur, at this point they knew that the key in this was silence and focus, making sure that they were mentally prepared to face any kind of terror they were about to enter their worst nightmare. Both June and Jaina were seen next to each other, hiding among the beast's fur as he was slowly making his way to the pathway. The sounds of shaky breathing could be heard as they looked over to see Fiona holding onto the beast's fur, trying her beast to keep calm, but failing. "Hey, come on now, you need to focus.... I know it's fearful, but you have to remain calm" June said looking over to Fiona. Jaina slid back to be next to her. "She's right shrimp." An explosion rang out, and the entire group saw what looked like a small volcanic eruption taking place not half a mile away. Seemingly ignoring the scene, Jaina continued. "Getting yourself worked up won't do you any good. Just take it easy, keep a cool head, and things will go off without a hitch." Fiona looked over to see both June and Jaina next to her as they were putting their own hands on Fiona's back, slowly rubbing it. In her heart, she could feel the same warmth that she often felt with her sister when she first moved with her. Her breathing calmed down as she simply laid and held onto the beast as it continued walking. Still sitting on the back of the beasts head, Rift was slowly growing impatient. He sat with his arms crossed, tapping his finger on his arm, until he eventually stood up. He kicked a bold out of the beasts collar, which soon slid off to the ground. "We don't got all day." He placed his foot on the top of it's head in the exact place he had knocked it out before, causing it to shutter a little. "Come on, pick up the pace already." It was slow to comply, bur soon began into a slow jog, followed by a run, then a full on gallop. he sat back down, taking hold of a few tufts of it's fur to keep himself anchored. The beast kept passing through place to place, until it stopped at what appeared to be shifting earth. The beast simply gave it's biggest roar as the group under it's fur held on as to not be sent flying by the reverberation of the shock wave. However, what surprised them was that when the shock wave stopped, they saw that the shifting ground and barriers had stopped as the beast took it's first step. "Wow... It must be some kind of special roar that allowed for the place to be still for as long as the beast is on" Fiona said as the beast continued it's way to the end of the path. When it stepped off, the shifting recontinued and the beast continued on the path. Isa glanced back at the ever shifting earth, holding her cap on with one hand to prevent it from being taken off in the wind. "No wonder you guys had such a hard time finding this place. Nothing around here seems even remotely habitable." Jaina sat up just as they entered into a mouth of a narrow canyon. "Well, she found a way somehow. Wonder what sort of stuff she's got hidden in their? putting all this work in to move it through all this." "There are somethings that should never be attempted, but Sabriel just perverts everything that she touches" June said gripping tighter on the beast's hair as it continued walking through the canyon. "So Jaina, what is this plan you have in store for us?". Without missing a beat, Jaina explained. "Me, Rift and Blondie well take on Mommy." Taichi blushed a little as he remembered the last person who called him that name, who strangely enough was Fiona's sister. "And you, sis and the shrimp will go find that cure you need" "It's not like it's gonna be in the fridge next to the milk, we'e talking about breaking into Sabriel's lab, it will mean she comes at us hard. I hope you guys will be ready..." June said as they all looked at each other, seeing the determination in their eyes as they nodded in response to her question. She then looked over to Fiona, seeing a twinkle in her eye like nothing she ever saw before as she smiled. "We can do this June, I know we can, this time she won't be able to stop us all together" Fiona said with confidence in her voice. "That's what we're there for." They heard Rift shout from ahead of them. "We'll deal with what's-her-name so what you guys have the chance to be thorough." He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder. "Isa's the strongest on here, so threats besides your mom shouldn't matter much." He grinned for the first time since they caught their mount, setting the others at ease. "See? We thought this through." June's heart felt at ease, but suddenly tightened when they heard the sounded like what appeared to be a horn of sorts, making them all hide in the fur of the monster as they drew closer to their destination. As the beast walked into the main area of the guild, some of the mages could be heard, yelling and demanding the beast to give whatever it had brought back to them in order to hand it over to their mistress. The beast coughed up what it brought as it then started heading back to it's normal stable and lying down before heading to sleep as what sounded like a cage lowered down. Luckily for them, the door was made to only hold the monster, so the bars had enough space between them to allow a human to fit through. The group waited for the crowd to disperse, having retrieved what they needed, they soon began heading back to their individual experiments and duties. Soon enough, their was only a single person keeping watch over the beast cadges. None the less, this proved an obstacle, as any alarm would ruin any chance they had of getting the cure back. After a few laps of the cages, it became clear that he wasn't going anywhere, much to the irritation of the group. Watching from behind the beast, Isa said. "Great, what do we do now?" They all heard the sound of shuffling, and looked to find Rift had got up and was walking toward the cage door, straight at the guard. Jaina stopped Isa from going out to stop him, trusting that he knew what he was doing. He silently slipped through the cage bars and tapped the guard on the shoulder, instantly winding up for a punch with the same hand. The guard slowly turned, only to take Rift's fist square in the nose. His head flew back, landing on the ground before anything else. Soon followed by his torso and legs, completely out cold. Rift dragged the guard back through the bars and buried him in hey, then turned back to Isa. "That." Seemingly answering her question from before. "Well at least you were able to do it silently" June said as she looked around and knew that the coast was clear, "Okay, Sabriel is going to be in her main labotory, which is likely where the cure is as well. The problem I see is that we will need quite a distraction strong enough for her to want to come out of that lab. Otherwise she'll just send the titans and guildmates until the threat is outnumbered" June said drawing into the dirt as she marked where the places were and how they were positioned. "I'm not so sure about that." Jaina said while studying the map June was drawing. "You don't keep finished products in the same place you create new ones. If she did, and their where ever an accident, she'd lose a lot more than just a few specimens." "What are we lookin' for then?" They heard Rift say while he kept watch for any other members. Jaina looked over the map again, but soon abandoned it and looked to June, figuring a first hand account would be a better source of information. "It'll need to be large, big enough to hold loads of research, but small enough as to not be an obvious target. Well armored to keep anything inside safe, but easy to get to should the need arise." She continued to think, but decided that was good enough for a start. "Anything like that sound familiar?" "There was this one special area that we were almost never allowed it, but it's very well guarded, multiple runes, security, anything to make sure no one ever went in there." Fiona said looking over to them as she drew the location in the dirt, "The easy part is to get there, the difficult part is to breach through that defense". Jaina leaned back, resting on the sleeping beast. "Yeah, that'll be it." She looked over at Isa, who was still looking at the map. "You think you can handle something like that sis?" Isa nodded silently, and Jaina smiled. "The fight'll probably draw people away from the storeroom. So just wait for us to make the first move, alright?" The second group nodded as they had placed their gear in a secret hiding spot until the mission was complete. The first team went out to the main laboratory, while the second one headed off to the storeroom. Confidence in their success varied from person to person. Not only in weather they could pull off their own jobs, but whether or not they could escape after succeeding. They could only blindly trust that things would go in their favor when it all came to a head. Of everything that was going on, June thought back to her talk with Rift on the cliff. Sure he was strong, but Sabriel had a real bad reputation. What happened if she had dragged these people here only to get caught up in the same trap she did? Then their was him suddenly growing quiet. What could have caused that? From what everyone had said, he was usually the more talkative one in the guild. All she knew was that things where about to get chaotic, and that they where right in the center of it. '''Next Chapter - Titanic Duel: Fear the Reaper' Category:Phantombeast Category:Flame Lizard Category:A Fight for a Single Friend